little fishy cupcakes

Hershey S’mores Cupcakes

Prep time: 1 hour 15 minsCook time: 25 minsTotal time: 1 hour 40 mins
Serves: 16

Hershey’s S’mores Cupcakes - delicious chocolate cupcakes with a graham cracker crust, filled with light and fluffy marshmallow filling and topped with milk chocolate ganache
Ingredients
For the crust:
1⅓ cup graham crackers crumbs
5 Tablespoon sugar
5 Tablespoon unsalted butter-melted
For chocolate cupcakes:
1 cup sugar
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk- room temperature
½ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg-lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup boiling water
For marshmallow filling:
2 egg whites
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
1 teaspoon vanilla
For milk chocolate ganache:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
10 oz. milk chocolate-finely chopped
½ Tablespoon vegetable oil
Instructions
To make the crust:
Place rack in center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 F, line cupcake tins with 16 cupcake liners and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter and mix well with a fork.
Press about 1 ½ Tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liners and bake 6 minutes, then set aside to cool.
To make the cupcakes:
In a large bowl combine cocoa, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add oil, milk, egg, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes with a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed, then add boiling water and beat to combine (batter will be thin). Divide batter evenly between cupcake liners over the crust (it should be ¾ full)
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Set aside to cool in pan, then using a sharp knife or cupcake corer hollow out the centers of each cupcake(cut the top of each center and save for later to place it back onto the fillin).
To make marshmallow filling:
In a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water whisk together egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar, until sugar dissolves (be careful, the water shouldn’t touch the bottom of the bowl). Continue whisking over simmering water until egg mixture is warm to touch, then remove from heat and continue beating with the mixer until still peaks form. At the end add vanilla and mix well.
Transfer the filling to a piping bag with round tip or use plastic bag and cut off the corner and fill the cupcakes. Place back the tops from centers of cupcakes.
To make the ganache:
On a low heat in a small sauce pan melt chopped milk chocolate with ½ Tablespoon vegetable oil, stirring until it’s completely smooth. Remove from heat and add cold heavy whipping cream, stir well until it’s evenly combine. Using a spoon spread the ganache onto the cupcakes. If the ganache is to runny place it in the fridge briefly to set before top the cupcakes.
Store in the fridge.

French Toast roll-ups

French toast roll-ups have hot, gooey fillings stuffed into the middle of them with golden-brown, buttery outsides coated in a sweet, crunchy cinnamon sugar that all but melts in your mouth.

To make the roll-ups the crusts get trimmed from sandwich bread then the slices are flattened out with a rolling pin. The flattened bread is then rolled with the filling of your choice and cooked in a buttery skillet just like regular french toast.

A generous dusting of cinnamon sugar, one of the best things on earth, finishes them and you can dunk them in maple syrup or eat them as is. They’re also good eaten at room temperature.

The filling consists of anything your little heart desires! I used peanut butter & jelly, cream cheese & jelly, plain peanut butter and plain cream cheese.

You can use a nut butter, nutella, marshmallow fluff, dulce de leche, cajeta and/or whatever else you can think of! There are no rules and the recipe is really more method than precision.

FRENCH TOAST ROLL-UPS

Rating: 5

Yield: 8 roll-ups

French toast roll-ups will spice up your breakfast routine!

INGREDIENTS:

8 slices white sandwich bread (the soft, fluffy type)

peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese, dulce de leche, cajeta or nutella

2 eggs

3 tablespoons milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon

butter, for greasing the pan

maple syrup, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Trim the crust from the bread and flatten it out with a rolling pin.
2. Place about a teaspoon or 2 of your chosen filling an inch from one end of the bread spread out in a strip. Roll the bread up and repeat until they're all filled.
3. In a shallow bowl whisk the eggs and milk until well combined.
4. In a separate bowl mix the sugar with the cinnamon.
5. In a skillet set over medium heat melt a tablespoon of butter.
6. Add the rolls to the egg turning to coat on all sides then place them in the pan seam side down. Cook in batches until golden brown, turning them to cook and brown on all sides. Add butter to the pan as needed.
7. Add the hot rolls from the pan to the cinnamon sugar and roll until completely covered in sugar.
8. Serve with maple syrup for dunking.

Notes:

Adapted from Pati's Mexican Table

dutch oven cakes

Just cake mix and soda - no eggs or oil.  Follow the same baking directions that are on the back of the box for a home oven.

PS This is a weight watchers favorite---any dark cake can be mixed with a can of coke and any light can be mixed with a can of sprite/ginger ale etc....It's an easy way to cut calories from the eggs, oil etc.

Lime Cloud Squares

Fans of key lime pie will jump for joy when they try these dessert squares, made with sugar-free JELL-O, low-fat sweetened condensed milk and lime juice.

What You Need

1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs, divided

1/4 cup butter, melted 3/4 cup boiling water

1 pkg. (0.3 oz.) JELL-O Lime Flavor Sugar Free Gelatin

1 cup ice cubes

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, so!ened

1 can (14 oz.) low-fat sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup lime juice

2 cups thawed COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping

Make It

Line 9-inch square pan with plastic wrap, with ends of wrap extending over sides. Reserve 1 Tbsp. graham crumbs. Mix remaining crumbs with butter; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Add boiling water to gelatin mix in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add ice; stir 2 min. or until thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Beat Neufchatel in medium bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in milk, then lime juice. Add gelatin; mix well. Whisk in 1 cup COOL WHIP. Pour over crust.

Refrigerate 6 hours or until firm. Cover with remaining COOL WHIP just before serving; sprinkle with reserved crumbs. Use plastic wrap handles to remove dessert from pan before cutting into squares. 

Kitchen Tips 

Small Changes Add Up

Small ingredient substitutions, such as JELL-O Lime Flavor Sugar Free Gelatin, PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, low- fat sweetened condensed milk and COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping  result in a savings of 40 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving when compared to a traditional recipe.